Highlander Redeemed (Guardians of the Targe Book 3) by Laurin Wittig Page B

believe in her, too.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    S COTIA FOLLOWED J EANETTE and Rowan a short way down the ben from the caves, then along what had originally been a faint deer trail but which had over the last weeks quickly become a path, now that her sister and cousin came here daily to practice their Guardian skills. As they neared the burn—Jeanette needed water for her gift of visions—a strange tingling sensation washed over Scotia’s skin, there and gone again in a single step. Rowan and Jeanette glanced at each other.
    “What was that?” Scotia asked, their behavior telling her it was not her imagination.
    “A barrier,” Rowan said, with a bemused smile. “’Tis too small to be of much use, but we constructed it three days ago, and it still holds.”
    “But we walked right through it,” Scotia said, looking behind her to see if she could tell where the barrier was. There was nothing to see.
    “Aye, we can, because we have no ill intent.” Jeanette was kneeling next to the burn. Rowan knelt facing her. She pulled the snow-white ermine sack from where it hung at her belt, laid it on the ground between them, and pulled it open until it lay in a flat circle.
    The Highland Targe lay on it, a heavy grey stone the size of a warrior’s fist, flattened on opposite sides so that it looked like a small, fat shield—a targe. Rowan turned the stone over, revealing the three swirls in a circle symbol that had been incised on itby some ancient Guardian forgotten by time. Rowan settled the stone in the center of the open sack, directly on top of the same swirls in a circle symbol that had been painted in a now-faded red dye on the amber-colored hide.
    Jeanette rotated the sack until she seemed satisfied with the arrangement. Two of the three additional symbols painted on the sack around the central symbol were aligned with the two Guardians. A third, an arrow broken in two places, was arranged facing Scotia. Both Guardians sat back upon their heels and looked at Scotia expectantly.
    “Have you actually tested the barrier with someone of ‘ill intent’?” she asked as she slowly approached the two women and the stone.
    “Nay,” Rowan said, “but if you happen to anger someone enough to goad them into trying to harm you, you can lead them here and test it for us.”
    “Very funny.” Scotia knelt down and sat back on her heels, facing the stone. The burn burbled happily opposite her, with Jeanette on her right and Rowan on her left.
    “Tell us about this
knowing
,” Rowan said.
    “There is nothing to tell. I simply
know
things that I have no way of knowing. I do not ken how or why I know these things.”
    “How long has this been going on?” Rowan again.
    Scotia had to think about that question. “I think . . . I think it has been going on my whole life.” The two women said nothing. “I did not think ’twas anything unusual until today. I assumed it happened to everyone, but apparently it does not.”
    “Other than today, are there specific times this has happened?” Jeanette asked.
    Scotia’s first thought had her clenching her teeth, but her second thought she could share. “Remember how I went in after Ian when the great hall was afire? I knew he was in there, though I had not seen him go in, nor did anyone else seem to ken he was in there. I knew it. I knew he was in the kitchen. I knew that hewas very afraid, and could not get himself out. I do not know how I knew it, but I did. Just like I knew where Maisie was today, and just as I know ’tis allies, not the watch, who are arriving.”
    “But you did not ken the curtain wall would fall, did you?” Rowan asked.
    Scotia shook her head, remembering that day when Nicholas had come into their lives and everything had changed. She sighed. “Nay, I knew Conall was there waiting for me, but that was only because I heard his whistle when I went out for a walk. So how does this work?” She waved a hand at the Targe stone. “How do we tell if I am another